Moving On
by xSeshatx
Summary: {Oneshot} Yugi just needs to get back on his feet after losing the Pharaoh. He didn't think it'd be too hard, but the struggle turns out to be almost more than he can handle.


**_I wrote this in two hours and didn't read over it (I only put it through spell-check) so please be nice_**

He missed him. For years, the two were a whole, opened to one another's thoughts. They were separate enough to have their own personalities but...they were one and the same. Losing the Pharaoh meant losing a part of himself. He knew it would be hard. He was ready to accept the pain. Accepting the pain meant he allowed the Pharaoh to leave in peace with little guilt for choosing his own life over his shared life with Yugi. He made it through the first few days as well as could be expected, even better, perhaps. He dueled with his friends and his grandpa, he exchanged friendly banter with them and even Kaiba, who wanted a duel to see if Yugi was truly the King of Games or if it was the other him who went back to his own time. Things were going fine despite the heartache.

Then Yugi started having sleepless nights. It wasn't that big of a deal the first two nights because heartbreak could do that to a person, but he was pushing three days of no sleep and that wasn't doing much for his mental health. With the little sleep he started managing the pain less and less until it got to the point that he wasn't dueling with his friends. He wasn't helping his grandpa in the game shop. He wasn't doing his homework for school. All of the consequences of his depression only caused him more stress because he knew he should be handling himself better than he was, and the stress only caused more sleepless nights. Around the fourth night he would fall asleep and then the cycle would repeat. Yugi was really starting to get sick, and everybody noticed.

How could he live when half of him was gone forever, never to return? Nobody was able to understand, no matter how hard they tried or how hard he tried to explain it to them, though he didn't do much explaining. They all lost a friend, but Yugi lost a part of himself. There was only one voice in his head after the Pharaoh left. It was like when the spirit left he took his confidence, self-esteem, and happiness with him. The miserable life he was living alone continued to wear him down.

It was the silence that got to him and really caused the insomnia. Whenever he had a rough time sleep, the Pharaoh would talk to him. They would work together to mull over their thoughts, talk about their worries, and get to the bottom of it so that Yugi could fall asleep. Being a spirit with no physical body, the spirit didn't have the need to go to sleep, so his life was built on insomnia, so to speak. Whenever Yugi couldn't sleep, he was never alone. He always had the spirit there to help him out and keep him company. Loneliness was a dangerous feeling because it made people feel sad and empty, like there was never going to be a happy moment again and there would never be anybody to fill that void.

There was silence in other areas, too. If he was in class, he was often discussing things with the Pharaoh. Since the Pharaoh hadn't really existed for thousands of years, there were many things in life that he hadn't learned or experienced, and even if he had, he wouldn't remember. So, Yugi took the liberty of teaching the spirit anything he wished to learn. The Pharaoh was often standing next to or beside Yugi, listening more intently than the physical boy was, and Yugi loved discussing topics with him. Seeing the way the Pharaoh's face would light up when he finally understood a modern topic such as electricity was always a redeeming moment for Yugi. He felt pride, knowing an ancient spirit was adjusting to a new time period. He felt proud of the Pharaoh, and he felt happy knowing he was able to help.

It seemed as if just as Yugi got to know who the Pharaoh was, he was gone. That was pretty much the case. Almost immediately, Yugi and the Pharaoh were dueling, and then the Pharaoh was leaving. He hadn't gotten to spend time with the real Pharaoh - the real Atem. He just learned his name and then had to say goodbye. That was cruel. It was a cruel joke the world played on him to thank him for saving everybody countless times.

What seemed to be even crueler was the fact that Yugi and the Pharaoh had been desperate ever since they got to know each other to duel the other, but that wasn't exactly easy to do in one body. They attempted it once before - switching minds back and forth, but there were too many complications. Then, they finally got to duel each other for the first and last time. That was one of their deepest desires, to finally be able to duel each other whenever they liked, but they only got the option once. He had to have been cursed.

Grandpa, naturally, was the first person to say something to him. But, not surprisingly, he backed off when he realized it only caused his grandson more pain to talk about it. He sat down on Yugi's bed, where the boy was laying and had been laying for total of sixteen hours that day, and got straight to the point. There was no point in beating around the bush. "You're getting sick, Yugi," he said gently, not wanting to come off too strong and send his grandson into a defensive rage. "I know you miss the Pharaoh, but what you're doing is only making your pain worse." The moment he saw tears appear in his grandson's eyes, he dropped the subject and offered to bring Yugi a snack.

Tristan was next, which was sort of surprising because, while they were close friends, they weren't as close as they could be. He came at it from a sharper approach, almost threatening Yugi to get out of bed and quit moping. "You think this is what he wanted?" he said one day at the end of class, ignoring the way other students looked over at them with a sick curiosity, wanting to know why Yugi and his friends had been acting strange. "You think he wanted you to sit here and let your life waste away because he's gone?! You're being selfish over this, Yugi! How do you think he feels, looking back to check on you only to see you moping like this?! Huh?!" Nobody stopped Yugi as he got up and walked away, not even the teacher who couldn't understand what was going on. Nobody mentioned how he never came back, and nobody spoke to Tristan for the rest of the day.

Téa came by later the night to check on Yugi. She knew Tristan had a point and was justified in saying what he said, but she knew it had to be done in a kinder way. Yelling at him in front of everybody would only make things worse, she knew. Grandpa let her in without question and knew exactly why she was there. He didn't need to show her up to his room because she had been over plenty of times before. There was a point in time when she, as well as Tristan and Joey, practically lived there. She knocked on the door more as a warning than a request to come in because she wasn't expecting any answer. Shutting the door behind her, she couldn't help the way her heart gave a painful thud when she saw the state of the room.

What was once a very clean, organized, happy space only seemed depressing and empty. Any game or puzzle was now missing from the open room, there was a pile of close on the far side of the room that Téa recognized as being more of the Pharaoh's style of clothing, and his desk was covered in crumpled paper and broken pencils. The light was shut off and everything had a light blanket of dust. "Oh, Yugi," she said quietly, almost to herself as she realized how bad things really were. She took a seat on the bed beside where Yugi was sitting, leaning back against the wall and staring at the mostly empty room with red eyes. "Why are you letting this happen to yourself? Tristan didn't mean to come off so rude earlier. He's just worried about you. We all are."

"You shouldn't be," Yugi said, and it surprised Téa to hear his voice. He hadn't spoken to any of them in close to three weeks. He hadn't said anything at all, actually. Téa didn't know that for sure but she had a feeling that was the case.

Reaching out to grab his hand, she was delighted that he didn't pull away. "We know this is hard for you. We can't blame you, either. He was...part of you. And now you're without him," she said, knowing she was probably making things worse by making him hear the truth that he already knew, but also knowing it was something he had to hear from somebody other than himself. "But, Yugi...Life will go on. It has to. You know that, and I think that scares you. It scares you to know that life can go on with such a big piece of yours missing. It'll get easier. It'll hurt a lot for a while, and then it'll hurt a little less, and then one day, you'll think of him and it won't hurt nearly as much as it does now."

She didn't say anything more after that and she couldn't be disappointed that Yugi didn't say anything, either. He spoke once and allowed her to speak without leaving. That was more than she expected when she came over. She sat with him in silence for a little bit longer before starting to stand up, but as she did, Yugi's grip on her hand tightened, and that was enough for Téa to sit back down and relax next to him. She could offer silent support if that's what Yugi needed at the moment.

Joey came next a few days later. It was Saturday evening and he couldn't wait any longer. He didn't call and give warning, he didn't knock on the door, and he didn't say hello to Gramps as he ran past him. He didn't knock on the door to give Yugi a warning and he didn't apologize for making the small boy jump in shock. "It's time to get you out of this funk," he announced, knowing he was moving too fast. Téa told him about the improvement, so he should have been happy with that, but that was too slow for him. There could have been so much more progress, and Joey was about to make it happen.

He hadn't been in Yugi's room since before they went to Egypt, and he wasn't happy with what he saw. It was so bare; so depressing. It didn't belong to the Yugi he had known for years, and he wasn't about to let it slide. "Joey," Yugi whispered, needing to be left alone at that moment more than ever. He had taken a nap and had the most realistic dream he ever had. It wasn't anything spectacular, but it was too realistic and that hurt because the Pharaoh was in it. The two were sitting up late, talking. It was as if nothing changed. Yugi couldn't sleep because he was worried about losing the Puzzle and the Pharaoh was sitting beside him and reassuring him that they would never part.

Joey didn't react at all to hearing Yugi's voice for the first time in weeks. Instead, he walked over to the window and raised the blinds to get some of the remaining light in. "You really know how to make life depressin'," he commented, taking a final look around. "Where's your Duel Monsters cards?" When he was returned with silence, he started searching on his own. He found them hidden under books in his bottom desk drawer. He refused to think on the fact that the books were on Egypt. He rested the box that the Millennium Puzzle came in on top of his desk and then grabbed all of the crumpled papers and threw them in the waste basket next to the door. That's when he noticed the pile of clothes on the other side of the room. "You are not wastin' all those clothes."

"They're not right for me," Yugi muttered, wanting to muster the energy to be irritated with Joey but not finding it in him to be angry. In response to that, Joey started picking up the clothes and hanging them up in the closet. "Please don't do that..."

"I'm not watchin' this," Joey said, ignoring Yugi's request. "We're fixing this, startin' with your room." He finished the clothes and then searched on the top shelf for the dust wipes he knew were up there. "This room is so depressin' that I now wanna cry." He sped his way through dusting everything off, keeping more unnecessary comments to himself for Yugi's benefit.

"I wanna be alone," Yugi said, even though he was realizing it was futile because Joey didn't seem to be leaving anytime soon.

"No you don't," Joey said, not having time to stop himself from adding, "You want to be with the Pharaoh. But that can't happen, so you're stuck with me." He dropped to his knees in front of the chest in the back of the closet and then started pulling out other games that he was used to saying. The Capsule Monsters game was there as well as Dungeon Dice Monsters and less used Duel Monsters cards. He pulled out board games like Monopoly and standard decks of cards. He pulled all of the games out and set them up around the room as if he was decorating, and then he got started on a speed run of jigsaw puzzles.

Since Yugi was such a game fanatic, of course he had a protective case to put puzzles in so they didn't fall apart. He used to always have a puzzle on display so Joey was going to put a puzzle on display. He picked a 100-piece puzzle because he wasn't planning on spending his entire night putting a puzzle together instead of helping Yugi. The speed run went quick enough, surprisingly, even though Joey was awful at jigsaw puzzles. He encased the display around it and then hung it up on the designated 'puzzle wall', they called it.

Joey looked around the room, wondering what else was missing. He realized, with an ache in his heart, that all the pictures had been taken down. There were paintings he created as a child, pictures of his family and friends, and posters for Duel Monsters. He went back to the chest and found them at the bottom. He hung the giant poster of the Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl on his door where it normally went, taking time to make sure it was perfectly straight. The poster was painful for Joey to look at, he had to admit, because of their connection to the Dark Magician, but he wasn't letting Yugi hide from it. He took the portrait of the four of them that was taken by Mokuba shortly before Egypt and put it on Yugi's nightstand as well as a photo of Yugi and Gramps. On his desk, he put up the picture of Yugi's parents and him as a young child, happily holding up the box the Millennium Puzzle came in. His grandpa gave him the puzzle when he was young and he was so excited to start working on it, at least that's what Yugi told them all. Finally, he hung up the picture Yugi drew of the forest shortly before finishing the puzzle. Joey had teased him for drawing it before, but now he realized Yugi had talent and it should be on display.

"We're gettin' you out of this, Yuge," Joey said confidently. "The first step was to make your environment happier. Now, we're getting you out of this room. We're going downstairs and you're going to duel me while he eat unhealthy snacks and drink unhealthy drinks and watch movies that will scare us so bad we'll laugh at each other."

"Joey," Yugi sighed, giving Joey a tired look.

"No," Joey said, shaking his head and ignoring whatever Yugi was planning on saying. "Come on. I'm not going anywhere until our stomachs hurt from eating things that are bad for us and laughing so hard. So come on."

So Yugi did, thinking if he relented for a short while Joey would leave him alone. Joey grabbed the Millennium Box off of the desk and led the way to the living room. He instructed Yugi to put on a scary movie while he went to get snacks. Gramps already had snacks ready as if he knew that was coming, and Joey wasn't going to question it. Before returning with the snacks, Joey grabbed the phone and called Tristan and Téa, dialing Tristan's number first and then Téa's. He informed them on what he did and what they were doing and they promised him they'd be down soon. They were going to have a giant sleepover, but he didn't tell Yugi any of it.

Joey almost beat Yugi during their first game of Duel Monsters which wouldn't have been all that surprising if it wasn't for the fact that Joey was almost purposefully throwing the game. Yugi came back, eventually, and by the end of the match his pouting look changed to just a gloomy one which was an upgrade. By the end of the second one, he had started to eat the snacks, and by the end of the third he was giving little laugh's in response to Joey's jokes and he had shouted out in fear of the movie that was playing which caused Joey to laugh at him and Yugi to laugh at himself.

Téa showed up during the beginning of the fourth game, and Tristan made it by the end. Yugi openly greeted them instead of the small wave they usually got after they said hello to them. Joey met their eyes and winked, letting them know that things were going smoothly and it was good that they were there. Gramps managed to worm his way in somewhere in between the fifth and sixth game with more snacks since the first batch seemed to have been eaten already.

Time began to fly and the next time anybody looked up to check on the time it was well after three, yet nobody (except Gramps) was ready to call it quits. Téa took the responsibility of laying out the blankets to create a makeshift bed but then they were all sitting back on the floor and playing games. They took a break from Duel Monsters in order to play Monopoly so Téa and Tristan could get involved. They kept putting in new movies as mostly background noise, and they were too full on snacks to even think about getting more food. They drank bottles upon bottles of Ramune but that didn't stop them from getting more.

Joey ended up winning the game of Monopoly which annoyed Tristan, but not really. He acted annoyed but he happy. It was a good nice for him. It was a good night for all of them. Téa sighed happily, giving Yugi a bright smile. Joey gave Yugi a wink and Tristan ruffled his hair. Yugi was still sad, but it was bearable. The pain was manageable. He felt the emptiness that should have been filled by the Pharaoh, but he didn't feel alone, and he knew he'd make it. He had his friends there who would carry him until he didn't need to be carried anymore. They allowed him to wallow in self-pity for long enough, but collectively, they forced him out of his rut and into the world of the living again. He needed that push and he was grateful.

Yugi would get his life back. He was complete before the Pharaoh shared his mind and body. He was complete with the Pharaoh. He'd be complete again after the Pharaoh. Tristan was right; he was being selfish. Téa was right; life will go on. Joey was right; he hadn't really wanted to be alone, he wanted to be with the Pharaoh. And he still did, but he also wanted to be with his friends, because they were a team. They were a team until the end, and it wasn't the end yet. It was just the end of a chapter of their story, and endings didn't always have to be bad. It was time to move on to the next chapter.


End file.
